The present invention relates to a label printer which uses a thermal printing head such as a thermographic printing head. Conventional label printers of this type are adapted to use a label tape made up by temporarily applying a number of labels onto a carrier strip in order and carry out printing on each of these labels in sequence by a thermal printing head while feeding the label tape at a specified speed by a label tape forwarding means.
For this label printer, said label tape is wound in the shape of a roll and held by a holding means such as, for example, a winding frame, and it is drawn out to the printing position of the thermal printing head by unwinding said rolled label tape.
The thermal printing head is adapted so that said thermal printing head opposed to the platen roller and said platen roller move in a direction away from each other while said thermal printing head and said platen roller relatively approach each other and move away from each other, a space through which the label tape is passed is formed between these two devices when they are spaced apart, and said label tape is held by and between these devices when they closely approach each other and moved as the platen roller rotates while said thermal printing head carries out printing on the labels. To pass the label tape between such thermal head and platen roller, the label tape is forwarded by manual or automatic label tape feeding means in its longitudinal direction and the leading end of the label tape is guided into the space between said thermal printing head and the platen roller. A label printer with such a construction as described above is disclosed in the Patent Application Disclosure Gazette (TOKUKAI) SHO 61-190431 and Patent Application Disclosure Gazette (TOKUKAI) SHO 62-260644.
Since the conventional printer apparatuses are adapted so that the label tape is passed between the thermal printing head and the platen roller while being drawn out from the roll of label tape thus held by the holding means, there is a problem, with a label printer for which the label tape is to be manually extended, that manual extension of the label tape is troublesome and there is also a problem, with a label printer in which the label tape is extended by an automatic label tape feeding means, that the construction is complicated and the printer is more expensive. In addition, in the case of most conventional label printers, the label tape is inserted into the casing and cannot be seen from outside as disclosed in the Patent Application Disclosure Gazette (TOKUKAI) SHO 61-190431. Therefore, they have the problem that, if a trouble takes place with the label tape set in the casing, the investigation of causes and correction of the trouble will require a lot of time and efforts. In the case of the label printers in which the label tape is set to be visible from outside as disclosed in the Patent Application Disclosure Gazette (TOKUKAI) SHO 62-260644, they also have a problem that, since the label tape is often kept uprightly in the widthwise direction and guided in the passage formed by guide rollers, it will be necessary to remove takeout the label tape from the passage for inspection and also the investigation of causes and correction of the trouble will be troublesome.